Perugia, Italy (CNN) -- Former American student Amanda Knox gave an emotional plea Saturday while appealing her conviction in the murder of her British roommate in Italy.

Knox spoke for about 15 minutes and broke down in tears. She said that she and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, are innocent and unjustly accused.

"I've been condemned for the crime I did not commit," Knox said.

Knox also added that court has made "a huge mistake."

"I don't know how to face the time ahead," she said.

Knox was sentenced last year to 26 years in prison for the killing of Meredith Kercher at the villa they shared in Perugia, the central Italian town where both were students.

Amanda Knox's family speaks out

2009: Knox convicted of murder RELATED TOPICS Amanda KnoxMeredith KercherKercher, 21, was found in November 2007, semi-naked with her throat slashed. Knox and Sollecito were both found guilty of the murder.

Sollecito is serving a 25-year sentence.

A third person, Rudy Guede, a drifter originally from the Ivory Coast, was tried separately and is serving a 16-year prison sentence.

Knox's appeal hearing started in November, but lasted only 15 minutes before the judge adjourned it until Saturday because one of the lawyers was not present.

Knox's family said in April that she is innocent and that no forensic evidence puts her at the crime scene.

"Meredith was Amanda's friend," the family said. "They liked each other and spent time together when not in school. Amanda would not hurt Meredith."

It appears that the reasons for the appeal are many, from DNA to other suspects and some kind of jailhouse letter. Follow the link below for more detail, as this site covers the finer details pretty well.

The jailhouse letter

In a file tucked neatly under a polished glass paperweight in Laura Ferraboschi's Parma law offices is a carefully guarded letter that Knox and Sollecito hope will set them free.

It is 10 pages, handwritten in the small, tilted script of Mario Alessi, a convicted murderer who had the prison cell across from Rudy Guede in the sex crimes ward of a tough prison just north of Rome.

Each page is signed by three other inmates who back up Alessi's story: that Guede told them Knox and Sollecito had nothing to do with the murder, charges Guede's attorney denies, calling the allegation "the desperate grabbing onto the desperate."

Taped and clipped to several of thin blue pages are smaller, ripped shreds of paper -- prison notes passed between the inmates about where and when to meet before drafting the letter.

How the letter arrived here, in Parma, and whether or not it will be introduced as evidence in Perugia, is a story within a story.

Alessi is a 39-year-old Sicilian bricklayer serving a life sentence in the kidnapping and murder of Tommaso Onofri, a 2-year-old boy from Parmhttp://www.seattlepi.com/local/431257_knox06.html?source=mypi